Tag Archives: Raymond Feist

Eight years ago, there was a Facebook thing going around about 15 Books in 15 Minutes – write down within 15 minutes 15 books that have stuck with you. I saw it pass through my Memories and started thinking (I didn’t look at what I wrote back then…perhaps I’ll visit after I write this and see…) about what books I would choose, 2017 version. But I’m not playing the time limit, nor, apparently, the 15 limit. Here are books that have stuck with me – mostly fiction, and some background as to why. The first five are in preference order, the rest are sort of fungible…and this has been a chore to format…Wordpress seems to have a hard time with a lot of images, links and whatever… Continue reading →

A colleague I’ve known for six years now has unintentionally given me two pieces of advice. For the first, we were discussing my stubborn insistence on finishing a book. I try to give authors a chance to redeem themselves – they might have some valid point, even if the rest of the book is drivel. Hell, I managed to slog through 16 of Heinlein’s novels before I threw in the towel. My friend told me that if he thinks he’s gotten enough out of a book, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change, he’s done. Ding. That made sense to me.

Though the sense was made, I’ve only actually given up on a book on a couple of occasions since that discussion, but I did recall one from before. William Gibson’s Neuromancer. I may try it again some day, but having recently started David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, I’m not so sure. Nonsense doesn’t appeal to me too often and Wallace’s tome is a mountain of it. Neuromancer was an interesting coincidence because that same colleague liked it and got into library science because of it (there’s a connection, I’m sure.) I still like him anyway.

Now… that confession. About two weeks back I stopped by for a short visit and we were talking about the rollout of the new City website, alternative social media (LinkedIn, Tumblr, a few I’d never heard of), and some of the tools he uses to gather the research people want/need. Imagine my surprise to learn that Twitter actually has some value!! He says that when a new policy, white paper, announcement is made, Twitter usually has it first. And here I was thinking it was for twits. I have looked at some enormous Twitter feeds and found nothing of merit…even those recommended by people I thought might know what they were talking about. Curmudgeon that I can be, I really had no interest in “micro-blogging”.

My colleague said he watches how information spreads so quickly through Twitter. “I’ve read your blog, but it has a small audience. Something hits Twitter and it’s out there.” I observed that I write my blog for me, but if others get something from it, then that’s a bonus. Still, he got me thinking…

So…I got a Twitter account. And immediately “followed” the City of Plano and City of Rowlett. I added some entities and people I was interested in seeing posts from: Make magazine, Sam Harris, John Allen Paulos, Penn Jillette, Raymond Feist, Michael Shermer, Rush (the band), Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, PZ Meyers, Stephen Wolfram…in all, I follow 28 so far. But I think PZ is going to get throttled – if that’s possible in the Twit-world. I used to like to read his blog, but I don’t see a lot of value in his twits. I like what Paulos, Dawkins and Shermer share, as well as Plano. Penn Jillette may need to be filtered along with Meyers…not so interested as I thought.

And I was surprised to learn that despite never having twitted anything (okay, there is something basely disturbing about “tweet” – I may someday come to actually say the term out loud, but it’s still all twittering to me), I had 13 “followers” within a few days. It doesn’t matter that I know only one of them. “Had” is the right term, because I learned I could block 11 of them for spamming me. Now I have two; a friend from before high school and some Twitter whore musician named Sean Ashe. I’m leaving him because he might learn something from me if I ever twit.

Anyway, if I come across a product or firm I want to keep tabs on, I now have a Twitter account I can follow them from. I’m not sure if the novelty will wear off – I got really tired of the bazillion updates when I tried an RSS feeder. Who has the time? I will wait and see if it really does add value to my life. Right now, it’s a not unpleasant distraction when I’m indisposed or the like.

I read 119 books in 2012, so I started the year with another ambitious goal of 100 books, using the Goodreads site to log and track. I was well ahead of the pace until July 31st and nearly didn’t reach my goal, but I did, reading an entire book on the last day.

One review continues to generate interest: I decided not to give Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard’s Killing Jesus one star, but my fair and balanced review really upset some of the sheep, though I’ve received 30 “likes” for it

Three authors asked me to read/review their books and I got a fourth book from a Goodreads giveaway whose author read my review

Probably the most significant book-related matter of 2013 was the devastating loss of our library of nearly 5,800 books. While only about 500 were directly destroyed by fire, all but about 20 of the rest were smoked and sooted beyond recovery.